


Your New Room

by maltesecaptainfalcon



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-09
Updated: 2015-10-09
Packaged: 2018-04-25 12:34:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4960831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maltesecaptainfalcon/pseuds/maltesecaptainfalcon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot gets a few presents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your New Room

Even after all they'd been through together, Peridot still preferred to spend her nights in the small "bath room" she first hid in. It was comforting, in a way. A part of this strange new world that was small enough for her to not feel overwhelmed, and where nobody could see her.

Well, usually. Steven did interrupt her quite frequently. She heard a few tentative knocks on the door. _Right on time,_ Peridot thought, it was almost the time when the young hybrid woke up.

"You can come in, Steven, it's unlocked." She wasn't afraid of the other gems opening her door any more, not after she'd worked with them to neutralize the Cluster…and they'd stopped threatening her so often.

There was a high-pitched, nervous laugh. "It's not him this time, Peridot." The Pearl. What did Pearl need with her? She usually spent all night behind the temple's door, doing who-knows-what. _What do Pearls do with their free time,_ Peridot questioned, before catching herself. She wasn't like the Pearls on Homeworld. _She didn't belong to anyone._

"...Peridot?"

_Overthinking again, forgot to answer,_ Peridot thought. "What do you want?"

Pearl paused on the other side of the door. "I have something to show you. Can you come out?"

Peridot tucked her armored boot — the only remnant she had of her life as a well-equipped engineer for the Diamond Authority — under the sink and peeked her head out the door. Pearl was looking down at her. She looked...nervous?

"What is it?" Peridot said, curtly. She still wasn't sure if she 

"Come with me." Pearl reached out her hand.

"I thought it was just Steven who did the hand-holding around here." Peridot said it with an ascerbic tone, but a small laugh betrayed that she found it funny. They'd started off so poorly, but Pearl seemed to have been warming to her after their initial fight. She opened the door wider and put her hand in Pearl's.

\---

It was the first time Peridot had been behind the imposing door of the temple, and it certainly wasn't what she expected. The room behind it seemed vast, almost endless. The floor was a grid of green, like a wireframe on a black background. Wireframe geometry, like an unfinished hologram model, stretched as far as the eye could see, making up the 'terrain' on the horizon.

Peridot took it in and looked back at Pearl. "What is this place? It seems…unfinished."

Pearl flashed the small, self-contented smile she always got when she got to explain something. "That's because it _is_ unfinished, Peridot! The interior of our temple is a place where each of us can retreat to, a place for meditation, study, and rest, perfectly molded by our thoughts and commands. It's filled with old gem power, from thousands of years ago, and its interior is completely unique to each of its occupants!"

Peridot looked skeptically around the mostly blank space. "And this is…all your room is?" Perhaps she was wrong to think that this Pearl was different. Maybe she wasn't as creative and brilliant as she seemed…

Pearl laughed into the back of her hand, almost smugly. "Of course not! This is new. It's yours."

Peridot was taken aback. "M-mine? You'd give a prisoner their own space in your temple?"

Pearl got down on her knee and looked directly into the smaller gem's eyes. "Prisoner? You just helped us save the entire planet! Why, we've been working together for weeks now! Did you really think we considered you a prisoner?"

Peridot just stared back. She didn't know what to say. She'd had to share her workshop with other Peridots back on Homeworld, everything was too crowded. She'd never had a place of her own—

Peridot was suddenly startled by Pearl leaping to her feet and exclaiming, "Oh, my stars! I almost forgot! Room, bring me my workbench!" A modest crafting station appeared, like something from very old gem tech. But resting on top of it were new, shiny…

"Limb enhancers! I can't believe it!" Peridot caught herself shouting in a very undignified manner. She cleared her throat and approached the table with Pearl. "Eh-hem. I mean…admirable work, Pearl. How did you make them?"

\---

Pearl helped her fit the last piece, the right hand, around her arm. She felt so much more _herself_ standing the same height as the other gem. And the limb enhancers that Pearl had made fit her perfectly. They were made of a light, carbon-based material and were much more comfortable than the metal military tech Homeworld had outfitted her in. No more screen or floating fingers, but, for the resources she had available, even Peridot had to admit that Pearl was a stellar engineer.

Peridot squeezed her hands into a ball and watched as the fingers on the prosthetic arms responded, perfectly in time. She was smiling broadly, despite herself, almost in tears.

Pearl grabbed Peridot's new hands in hers and looked at her, again face-to-face at the same level. "Well, let's make sure they work! Safety first, after all," she nervously chuckled.

Peridot raised her brow. "How do you propose we test—"

Pearl interrupted her. "Room! Music!" A waltz began to play and Pearl gripped Peridot's hands tighter. She began to lead the Homeworld gem in a simple, swaying dance.

Pearl started talking very quietly, interspersed with counting off Peridot's steps. "I built these for you because — one, two, three, one, two, three — because we wanted you to feel like a — step, step, you've got it! — like a part of the team. One of the Crystal Gems."

Peridot was swaying in time with Pearl's instructions, but her smile faded a bit. "You want me to…serve you?"

Pearl laughed again, but this time without the hints of nervousness. "Heavens, no! That's not what being a Crystal Gem is about at all! It's all about protecting this world…and you've already proven quite adept at that."

Peridot felt a warmth within her. She felt more valued here than she ever had with her old commanders… "Why this world, though? Why have you and the others risked your life for so long against Homeworld for this…small, insignificant planet?"

Pearl led Peridot in more pronounced steps, her new legs following perfectly. Pearl drew closer to Peridot's ear. "Because, here," _one, two, three_ , "It doesn't matter who you were on Homeworld. You can be whoever you want." Peridot noticed Pearl was blushing. "You can be _with_ whoever you want. Even…even if you're just a Pearl."

The music was lovely, nothing like the electronic sounds of her home's war chants. It sounded…alive. She stared into Pearl's eyes and everything else seemed to fade away. "Even if you're just a Peridot."

"Yes."

They swayed and danced for what seemed like forever, with Peridot lifting Pearl's arm for her to spin and leap in time with the music. She was a brilliant dancer, better than even the aristocrats' personal Pearls on Homeworld. But she stopped her pirouetting and placed her hands on Peridot's waist. "That's not all you can do here…have you ever fused before, Peridot?"

Now it was Peridot's turn to blush. She shook her head in a simple "no," without breaking eye contact with Pearl. She said, so quietly that it was almost a whisper, "But…I've been thinking about it ever since—"

Suddenly, light poured in as the temple door opened. Amythest ran in with Steven on her shoulders, shouting at the top of her lungs. "GOOOOOOOD MORNING, TURBONERDS! Did we interrupt anything?" Peridot and Pearl had pushed away from each other so quickly that they both teetered, and Peridot fell on her back.

Pearl started babbling at a mile a minute. "Just, testing to make sure Peridot's limb enhancers are properly working andensuringthattherewon'tbeanysafetyconcerns, ha! Safety first! Right, Peridot?"

Trying to return some composure to her voice, Peridot shakily rose to her feet. "Yes, yes. Safety first. Ahem! Pearl had informed me that you had tabled an offer for me to join your little… _group_ ,” she said, contentiously. "After thinking it over, and considering how much you could use my _considerable_ talent and leadership, I've decided to accept."

"Yaaaay! New teammate! New teammate!" Steven hopped off of Amythest's shoulders and they both began running in circles, hooting and shouting in celebration. "Another big nerd for me to noogie!"

\---

They'd gathered around a bonfire on the beach outside the temple, all the Crystal Gems, the "Greg," whom Peridot had learned was some sort of great human sage, and a newly-grown human called a "Connie." The winds were balmy and cool and the fire crackled low.

Peridot used to spend all her time on Earth nights looking up at the stars, but she looked around at the gems and people that surrounded her…at Pearl. She had a new home, now. Steven and the Greg had finished tuning their Earth instruments, and Steven was about to lead everyone in the new rendition of their ragtag group's "theme song," which Steven and Amythest both promised Peridot was something _all_ Earth heroes had.

Steven began. “ _If you're evil and you're on the rise, you can count on the five of us taking you down! 'Cause we're good and evil never beats us, we'll win the fight and then go out for pizzas!_ ”

Everyone joined in, now, even Peridot, who'd never sung in front of _people_ before.

“ _We are the Crystal Gems, we'll always save the day! And if you think we can't, we'll always find a way!_ ”

“ _That's why the people of this world believe in,_ “ and here, they took turns singing their own name, “ _Garnet, Amythest, Pearl, Peridot and Steven!_ ”

The assembled gems and humans clapped raucously and cheered under the night sky. Peridot turned to Pearl, who was smiling at her. She grabbed her hand as the laughter turned into conversation, and held it all through the gathering that night.

_I could get used to this Earth,_ Peridot thought, and closed her eyes, leaning on Pearl's shoulder and listening to the waves rolling in.


End file.
